This week in Emerging Practices, we will be discussing Change Agency and the shaping of future technologies. We’ll discuss Uber, Elon Musk, Theranos, and MIT Media Lab, mainly. With a hands-on activity programming a social robot and comparing the experience with the claims made by the company. The goal is to develop a critical, informed, personal view of how tech develops today.

1. Emerging Practices 2019
#ctec702
Week 8
Ricardo Sosa
rsosa@aut.ac.nz
designcomputing

2. Fully
Human
Shape
Human-
like Shape
Machine-like
Shape
Fully Machine Shape

3. Human-
like
Behaviour
Machine-like
Behaviour
Fully Machine
Behaviour
Fully Human
Behaviour

4. Change Agents

11. • Uber has never once made a
profit over the last decade
• Everyone who got in early on
Uber made a killing. Anyone who
got their money in on the ground
floor is very happy with how
things turned out.
• So by the time you get to an
initial public offering, which is
when people like you and me
can actually buy shares of this
company, those early investors
can sell their shares at an insane
profit.
• Anyone who bought shares have
only lost money, essentially
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/podcasts/t

15. https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/8/20793793/uber-5-billion-quarter-loss-profit-lyft-traffic-2019
• The ride-hailing giant reported
losing a whopping $5.2 billion
in the last three months. No,
there isn’t dirt on your screen.
That’s billion with a “b.”
• None of the ride-sharing
companies around the world —
Didi in China, Ola in India, Grab in
Southeast Asia — are profitable.
And none of them can
convincingly articulate a path to
profitability aside from vague
references to improving the
bottom line and reining in ride
subsidies and driver incentives.

16. https://observer.com/2019/05/uber-ipo-nyse-7-investor-winners/

17. • Michael Barbaro
• So for the super-wealthy early investors, it isn’t necessarily a problem that Uber has
never made money. Those investors did make a huge amount of money from the I.P.O.
And I wonder if you think that that fact, that reality of how things work out there in
Silicon Valley, has contributed to the kind of growth that Uber experienced, which was
this kind of heedless, subsidized investment into profitability that never materialized?
• Mike Isaac
• Yes, that’s common out here. And I think that’s just going to continue occurring,
because that’s how the model works.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/podcasts/the-daily/uber-profit.html

18. https://observer.com/2019/04/pinterest-ipo-biggest-winners-losers/
• Ben Silbermann, Pinterest’s co-
founder and CEO, owns 51.6 million
shares, or 11.4 percent, of the
company. After Thursday, his stake
will be worth up to $1.29 billion.
• Evan Sharp, owns 9.5 million shares, or
2.1 percent, of Pinterest, which will be
worth up to $226 million. Paul Sciarra,
owns 42.4 million shares, or 9.3 percent,
of the company. After the IPO, he will be
harvesting just above $1 billion.
• Bessemer Venture, Calif.-based venture
capital firm, bought $10 million worth of
shares during its series A fundraising
round in 2011 for just $0.17 a piece.
That stake is now worth up to $1.47
billion.

19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_capital#/media/File:Startup_Financing_Cycle.png

20. The “Silicon Valley”* tech entrepreneur
• “Visionaries”
• “Change the world”
• “Embrace failure”
• “Rebels”
• “Fake it ‘till you make it”
• “Self-made”
• “Charisma”
• “Unicorns”
• “Innovation”
• Greed and delusion
• Media click-bait profiling
• Myth-ridden culture
• Hype, viral feedback loops
• Naïve, uncritical public
• Power & privilege
• Cult behaviour
• Outdated regulations
• Techno-determinism
* not exclusive to Palo Alto

21. Founded in 2003 by then-19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos raised more than
US$700 million from venture capitalists and private investors, resulting in a $10 billion
valuation at its peak in 2013 and 2014. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theranos

22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta1DqI4xDRw

23. The case is U.S. v. Holmes, 18-cr-00258, United States District Court for the
Northern District of California and it is set to begin on July 28, 2020. They
face up to 20 years in prison. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Holmes

24. https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/vptj5jf1

26. The Disobedience Award—a $250,000, no-strings-attached
prize—recognizes individuals and groups who engage in
responsible, ethical disobedience aimed at challenging
norms, rules, or laws that sustain society’s injustices.
This award honors work that is focused on positive impact
and is consistent with a set of key principles, including:
•nonviolence
•creativity
•courage
•personal responsibility
The award is open to people and groups working in any
discipline anywhere in the world, including, but not limited
to, scientific research, civil rights, freedom of speech,
human rights, and the freedom to innovate. By rewarding
thoughtful, nonviolent acts of disobedience, we hope to
raise the public profile of these activities and ultimately
inspire new agents of change.
https://www.media.mit.edu/groups/disobedience-award/

27. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-an-elite-university-research-center-concealed-its-relationship-with-jeffrey-epstein
“Make sure this gets accounted for as
anonymous.”

29. Cesar A. Hidalgo @cesifoti
• I have little to contribute to Epstein’s ties to the lab. It has all
been news to me. Nevertheless, I have a few things to say
about the environment where this happened. The environment
can help us understand the conditions that allowed the
reported behaviors.
• I was a faculty at the media lab for nearly a decade, first as an
assistant, and then as an associate professor. I directed the
Collective Learning group, that had nearly 20 people at some
point. But was I really a “member” of the media lab faculty?
• On the one hand, I looked like one. I published papers and
projects, and in 2018, I ranked 5th among all media lab faculty
(senior and junior) in number of citations received during that
year according to Google Scholar
• But on the other hand. I was constantly marginalized and
excluded. Let me share with you a few anecdotes of what it
meant to be the only Hispanic member in the history of the
MIT Media Lab.
• The Media Lab has many brilliant scholars and inventors. I am in
complete awe of their intellectual merit and contributions. But
despite selling itself as a community, it is not.

30. http://www.fullhdwpp.com/
if your presence doesn't make an impact
your absence won't make a difference

31. https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/
In 2018, Global Witness documented 164 killings of
land and environmental defenders – ordinary people
murdered for defending their homes, forests and rivers
against destructive industries.

32. Evaluation activity of Nao

35. Our robots are the
attractive channel for
entertaining and
educational
communication toward
students. Especially in
inspiring and
accompanying kids for
physical and intellectual
exercises and supporting
the social & emotional
skills development.

36. Insight generator: Conduct
survey research to
understand student
behaviours, provide
detailed and regular
feedback to teachers on
their advancement.
Pepper and NAO execute it
with flexibility and collect
complex data to generate
more valuable student
insights.